Marsh / O’Brien

Land

A short film choreographed and performed by Dancers Welly O’Brien and Kate Marsh and directed by film maker Jay Gearing explores the relationship between two dancers. O’Brien and Marsh wanted to make a work that expresses what it means for them to ‘perform’ on their own terms. A slow and gentle piece that reveals something of their friendship, their long collaboration and a resistance of the traditional ‘virtuosic’ disabled dance artist.

Alongside a screening of the film, Kate will talk about her research in dance, specifically autonomous disabled dance artists. She will focus on how work made by and including ‘othered’ artists is read and understood within existing frameworks of dance and performance critique.

Kate Marsh

Kate Marsh is a disabled dance artist with over 20 years’ experience of performing, teaching and making. Her interests are centred around perceptions of the body in the arts and notions of corporeal aesthetics. Specifically, she is interested in each of our lived experiences of our bodies, and how this does (or doesn’t) inform our artistic practice. Her recently completed PhD focuses on leadership in the context of dance and disability and draws strongly on the voices of artists to interrogate questions around notions of leadership, perceptions and the body.